Cyber Threat
by Runnerload
Summary: When a navy intelligence officer suddenly disappears, for the NCIS Washington Team begins a race against the clock because the imformation the victim had access to could become a threat to National Security...
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was a slow day at the Washington DC Office of NCIS; all of the agents except for Leroy Jethro Gibbs were at their desks. Tony was busy with a private phone call, something he almost did every time the boss wasn't there to watch him. He finally ended the call, as his mobile phone started to vibrate shortly in one of the drawers of his desk, so he quickly said to the woman on the other end of the line: "I've got to now Jenny, still got plenty of paperwork to do."

Then he quickly grabbed his phone out of one of his desk drawers and smiled dirty as he saw, who had written him a nice short message and quickly typed back: "I enjoyed last night very much too and of course we have to do that again some time." Then he practically fell out of his chair, as he was slapped against the back of his head and heard Gibbs say: "You don't have got time for that right now Dinozzo, because we've got work to do. Grab your gear; we have a crime scene in Quantico."

"Do we have a Dead Body Gibbs?" Ziva asked as she got her backpack, her badge and her weapon out of the second drawer of her desk. "There wasn't a body found yet, just a lot of blood at the Crime Scene and this one is a very delicate matter: Base Commander Peter Hendricks said that the victim had access to a lot of sensitive secret data."

_Office of Special Projects, Los Angeles_

Eric and Nell were still a little tired because of the last case, which really had been a stressful rollercoaster for all of them. Some former Navy Officers who had gone rogue, had really understood to fool them with putting them on false leads and with only a lot of luck they could avoid an attack on the visiting Secretary of the Navy at the last second. At the moment Eric was sitting alone in the room because Nell was getting them both some coffee, he was still getting butterflies around her because her smile was just contagious: when she smiled, he just couldn't do anything else than to do it also. The Intelligence Analyst finally returned to OPS, Eric was so occupied with his thoughts that he didn't notice Nell returning.

So like she always did, Nell silently sneaked up behind her partner, covered his eyes with her hands and said: "Guess who it is." He thought about what to say for a moment and with a big grin on his face: "These nice soft hands would I recognize even in my sleep Rockstar."

She then took the hands from his eyes, smiled brightly at him and planted on short kiss on his mouth and before Nell could do anything against it, he pulled her into his lap and started to tickle her sides with both hands. She immediately began to laugh; they fooled around for quite a while till Nell finally said: "We better start to drink our cups of coffee now, I don't know about you but I personally hate to drink it cold." Eric agreed on her statement, slowly she got out of his lab and the two got back to work.

_Quantico Navy Base, Washington DC_

Gibbs and his team finally arrived at the scene; in the base apartment was the total chaos and for team it was totally obvious that whoever had been here in the apartment with the victim had definitely searched for something. "The victim's name is Andrew Peterson, lived on the base for almost twelve years and worked at the Navy Intelligence Office."

"Dinozzo go talk to his CO, we need to find out on what exactly he has been working on before his death." "On it boss." Tony answered shortly as he left the apartment to make his way to the Navy Intelligence Office that was nearby the base. Meanwhile Mc Gee and Ziva had split up to the search for any clues that would lead to the person that attacked Lt. Peterson in his apartment and if he was actually still alive.

Ziva collected some blood out of a huge blood pool in the kitchen, so she called for Gibbs: "Gibbs you've got to see this." Jethro carefully stepped to the position where Ziva was standing right now, without stepping into any blood: "This is definitely the place where the attack has happened; the Lt. could have known his attacker." Mc Gee later also talked with a good friend of the victim and found out that Petersons Laptop was missing, as the friend of Peterson had told him that he kept it home. Tim called Gibbs at once, who thanked for the information and later also called Tony to hear if he got any useful information for him: "I think we've got a very big problem boss, it seems that Peterson has access to very high classified information like data for the newest submarine prototype of the Navy which has a new technique on board that could make it totally invisible for the radar."

Gibbs didn't need to hear anything more; he knew that this highly sensitive information could mean a threat to national security and that made this investigation something more than just a possible murder or kidnapping of a Navy Officer.

_NCIS Headquarters, Washington DC_

Back at the HQ, with the help of the crime scene photos the team tried to reconstruct what had happened at Quantico and not to Gibbs surprise Ducky stated after he had a longer look at the photo of the large blood pool in the living room, that he highly doubted that the Lt. was still alive.

They had one big breakthrough as Mc Gee studied the surveillance tapes back at the bullpen: "Freeze the video and try to enlarge the face for an ID of the man." Gibbs said, Mc Gee pressed some buttons on his computer keyboard then said: "I can't get a good look at the face, unfortunately for us the man always keeps away his face from the camera."

_AN: I Hope you like the first chapter of new story, please read and review_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

_NCIS Headquarters, Washington DC_

As Gibbs had continued to watch the surveillance tape of the Quantico Base, they spotted the suspicious man getting into a black SUV. Of course Mc Gee checked the plates of the car immediately but unfortunately they were faked: "Tony put a bolo out for the black Suv and Mc Gee continue to follow the car with every avaible camera because we need to find out where they drove." Gibbs said and pointed at the now frozen image of the car where this mysterious man got in, minutes after he killed or kidnapped the Lt.

"According to SGT. Miller, the head technician at his men discovered that the cameras near the base apartments had been tempered with. Someone with very good technical skills was able to remotely tap into the camera feed and a manipulate it and because of that they were able to move freely on the base without being detected." Mc Gee said, Gibbs went to his desk, took one short sip from his plastic coffee cup thought about everything that Tim had just said and then finally replied: "So that person was definitely someone from the inside and he surely wasn't working alone." This surely was getting more and more complex, but on the other hand Gibbs really loved it to be challenged by a case like that, he hated it to always be able to get done the easy way and then thought to himself: *_How can we find those people, who are obviously pros at what they do, when they apparently haven't made one single mistake so far?* _

"Mc Gee have a look at the base personnel files, see if anyone of them has a criminal record, even if it's only a speeding ticket or something like that." Gibbs said to Mc Gee, and then turned around to Tony and Ziva: "You two go back to the workplace of the Lt., ask his CO if anything suspicious has happened in the past, any indications that someone inside the Navy Intelligence Office has been selling information to an enemy country."

_Office of Special Projects, Los Angeles_

In the bullpen of the OSP Building, the rest of the team was sitting at their respective desks, talking about what they had done the past weekend. "The weekend was great guys, had a great girls night in some cool new club called "The Rising Sun".

"Was there maybe anyone with you that we know?" Deeks asked being curious as always when it considered Kensi's weekend activities. Kensi grinned a little bit, of course she had already seen that question coming and finally replied: "Actually Nell was one of the girls that partied with me almost till the next morning." Sam and Callen watched that whole scene unfold in front of them with a little bit of amusement because Deeks had to definitely think that his wildest dreams had finally come true.

The LAPD Liasion finally answered in a very non-chalant tone: "I really didn't expect the little red to be a party girl." Before Kensi could say anything in return, Nell appeared at the top of the stairs and whistled to get the attention of the team that sat down in the bullpen at their respective desks. As Deeks, Sam, Callen and Kensi turned around they were a little surprised to see her instead of Eric on top of the stairs but that was probably one of the things that had changed, since the two had become a couple. As the team had gathered up in the OPS Center Eric started the briefing for the newest case: "Three hours ago, someone hacked into the mainframe of the Naval Air Station Point Mogu, those guys were definitely pros because they could smuggle some data out of the system before being detected. Right they are still assessing the damage that has been done by the cyber-attack." Nell, having her portable pc in her hands as always then took over: "The IT Experts at Point Mogu are suspecting that they got themselves the start codes for the newest rocket prototype that has been developed at Point Mogu…"

"And in the wrong hands this one could really do some great damage, paranoid enemies could see a rogue rocket exploding on their ground as an act of war." Callen said now being very alarmed and then Sam asked Eric: "Were the guys at Point Mogu able to track down the source of the hacking?"

"Sadly no, they of course had tried to find them with a special trace program but they were able to reroute their signal the whole time." Eric answered Sam and continued to work on his portable computer.

"I did some research and looks like we have at least one trace that we can follow as a start." Nell then said, pushed some buttons on her portable computer, a photo of a young man with short dark brown hair appeared on the screen and Nell finally continued to speak: "This is Brad North, one of the most searched hackers by the FBI, which is after him since three now but every time they were close to catch he was able to slip through the net. But they were able to spot him in LA two days ago, they're guessing that he meets contacts from the hacker scene here In Los Angeles."

"Since none of the others here would be qualified for that mission, it looks like you're going on another field trip Miss Jones. Mister North was and is still a very cautious man; we can't afford to lose him out of our line of sight because he's the only hope we have right now to get closer to the hackers that threaten national security." Hetty said to Nell, who didn't really know if she should be happy about another field trip or scared.

Of course she didn't see that coming her way, but on the other hand it was really a great opportunity to get more routine into working in the field and she certainly would talk to Callen, who had become something like her mentor considering the field missions, to get some final advice before her departure to where ever she would heading to. "North actually has a good friend here in LA, Victor Mason, who hasn't got a criminal record as far as we know. Mason lives in Bakersfield, Masters Road six." Nell said and then waited what Hetty would say next:

"Mister Beale use every avavaible traffic cam to find Mister North, Miss Jones prepare yourself for your undercover assignment because you need be ready to go when we have got Mister North's location."

_One Hour later_

Eric was busy working in OPS when an alarm went off at his work station, he called Hetty once he had read the bolo from the colleagues in Washington DC and realized that there two cases might be connected. Deeks and Kensi where already out in the field, paying North's ex-girlfriend a visit, while Callen and Sam were hoping to get any valueable information from his best friend Victor Mason.

"This was taken at the Washington DC Airport in the afternoon, after he had been involved in a murder of a Navy Lt. in the Navy Intelligence Office, posing as a Navy Computer Technician."

"He boarded a plane to LA a few minutes after his arrival was recorded by the surveillance camera in front of the airport, the estimated arrival time is in the evening LA time and it looks like we are not the only one looking for him, the NCIS Office in Washington DC has sent out a bolo for a black suv that apparently belongs to an yet unknown associate of him." After had finally finished giving Hetty all the new information he had right now, Hetty ordered Eric to help Nell prepare a undercover identity and before she finally left the OPS, she looked one more time at Nell and said: "I know that you are a little bit nervous about this whole thing, because you're not that often in the field but I have all the faith in the world that you can pull this off Miss Jones."

_AN: Thanks to- Andrew Jeeves for adding this story to his favorite stories list, story alert subscription, thanks to- fairy demon for adding this story to his/her story alert subscription._


	3. Chapter 3

_Downtown Los Angeles_

Undercover as a computer nerd, definitely one of the easiest roles to play for Nell, she had finally got in touch with Brad North. She really couldn't screw this one up, no matter what because if so they would probably lose their only solid lead in this case. "So Miss Rollins, how do you think you can be off service to me?" Nell didn't have to think very long about that, with some last advice from Callen she had learned to sound pretty convincing as her undercover identity:

"I heard from some people I know, that you have a big thing going right now, involving some secret computer data from the government. This data is highly encrypted most of the time, I have hacked a number of government databases and got through some high level encryption and because of that you could definitely use someone with a big skill set like me."

_OSP Office_

Eric sat alone in OPS watching every move of Nell and was really worried for her safety right now. He quickly banned this thoughts from his mind, because on the other hand he knew that she was very much able to take care of herself out in the field undercover but still one tiny rest of worry would still remain, till Nell was finally back at OPS sitting next to him.

Somewhere else in LA Kensi and Deeks finally arrived at the house of North's ex-girlfriend and really hoped that she could supply them with some valuable information considering her former boyfriend. Finally they rang the doorbell, Julia Meyers opened the door and then Deeks said: "Miss Meyers, I'm Detective Deeks from LAPD and this is Agent Kensi Blye from NCIS."

"What can I do for you?" Miss Myers asked now really wondering, why on earth an LAPD Detective and an NCIS Agent stood now in front of her. "We are here to ask you some questions about your former partner Brad North, did you contact with him recently?" Kensi asked and intently watched the body language of Julia Myers because if she made even one little suspicious movement with one tiny part of her body, Kensi would know for sure that she was probably hiding something.

In a very relaxed tone Miss Myers finally answered: "I can't help you there Agent Blye, I have neither talked with nor seen Brad in like three years. I'm pretty happy that he's out of my life, because he has cheated on me not only once and I really have to say that I was really mad at myself for quite a while because I was so naïve and totally fell for his charm." To Kensi and Deeks it seemed that they had unfortunately hit a dead for right now, Kensi really hoped that Callen and Sam would be more successful because they still had no idea what North was planning in LA but it surely was something big.

_NCIS Headquarters, Washington DC_

Tony was finally back at his desk after talking with some guy from the local hacker scene in interrogation. He looked into the status of the bolo and saw that someone had reacted to it, he opened the file at once and was a little surprised as he saw, who had responded to it: "Boss we have a first reaction to the bolo, looks like we're not the only ones who are looking for this mystery man."

"Who else is looking for our suspect Di Nozzo?" Gibbs asked anxiously and really the fact, that Tony would keep him waiting. "The NCIS Office of Special Projects has spotted Brad North, the man that got into the still missing black suv in LA. It definitely looks like North is planning something big in LA but they don't what exactly yet."

"Set up a video call with OSP at MTAC, I want to know what they know so far." Gibbs said facing Mc Gee, who directly left the bullpen to set up the video call for Gibbs at MTAC.

_Downtown Los Angeles_

Back at the little Hotel, where Nell had met up with North as her undercover identity Jamie Rollins, she had finally reached an agreement with him.

North returned to the little table in the deserted lobby and said to her: "Miss Rollins after consulting with my business partner, I decided to hire you for the job. We can discuss the payment details over one nice drink in the hotel bar."

"That sounds very good to me Mister Parker, let's go and I'm happy that I can prove my special talents to you very soon." Nell replied, then Parker, Nell and the two man that had kept him company the whole time, left the little Hotel Lobby and headed straight for the Hotel Bar.

NCIS, Office of Special Projects

Eric was in the middle of watching everything that happened in the Hotel, where Nell met with the people that were probably on the verge of starting a big Cyber War against the USA, when on message window popped up on the left side of his computer screen.

Immediately he called Hetty and informed her, that a request for a video conference call from Washington DC had come in, Henrietta Lang just replied shortly: "Thanks for notifying me Mister Beale, I will be up in a minute. "

_AN: Thanks to- Technoboots for adding this Story to her/his Story Alert Subscription, Thanks to- CBurns 1995 for adding this story to her Story Alert Subscription and to her favorite stories list, _


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Eric finally put the video conference call from the colleagues in Washington DC on the big screen: „Director Vance what can I do for you? " Hetty asked right away, because she really wasn't the type of person that liked to waste time with pleasantries.

"Miss Lang this is Special Agent Gibbs and it seems like our two cases are related, since we could read from your reaction to our bolo for that mysterious SUV. " Director Vance replied and then just shortly nodded at Gibbs, to signal him that he could take over now.

"The SUV where you put out a bolo on is owned by someone out of LA that is related to a local hacker cell here in LA: Peter Marks and we know who probably the boss of the local hacker cell is." Hetty replied and then waited for a reaction from Agent Gibbs before she was going to proceed with telling him what they knew so far.

"Who is it Miss Lang?" Agent Gibbs asked and then waited for Hetty to proceed. Hetty then asked Eric to put the picture up on the screen and said: "Brad North, known Cyber Terrorist for quite a while now but Homeland Security hasn't been able to get a hold of him yet, because the man is like a phantom: As quickly as he appears on the scene he almost disappears into thin air before someone could come even close enough to capture him." Gibbs sighed mentally to himself a little bit, because this case would surely be one heck of a difficult one to solve but they just had to everything they could to stop those people no matter what it cost.

"One of my best Agents is undercover in North's Hacker Crew and whatever they are trying to do, she's going to do her very best to avoid a big cyber-attack on our country." Hetty said and then Gibbs said: "North was probably also involved in the theft of some high classified information from the Office of Navy Intelligence in Washington DC and we think that he is going to use some new prototype rocket against America. "

"So this Cyber War could get a real war in a hurry that is alarming news, do you have any Idea what the possible targets might be?" Hetty asked in a worried tone and she really knew right now, that this case could be some of the very tough one to solve.

_Downtown Los Angeles_

Over a nice little Martini, the four had discussed the payment details for the job and now Nell asked: "Now that we have reached an agreement considering my payment, I would really love to hear about the job I'm going to do for you." North smiled at her with one of his trademark smiles and after taking another sip from his Martini he finally answered: "I like people who get straight to business very much Miss Rollins, your job is: hacking into Point Mogu. At this military installation, some new prototype rocket is stored that we have stolen the start codes for and with your help, we are going to launch an attack against the pentagon in Washington DC."

_Sunset Boulevard_

Sam and Callen had arrived at Victor Mason's condo on Sunset Boulevard. Callen knocked on the door two times: "Mister Mason, Agents Hannah and Callen from NCIS." No one answered the door and now the two of them got suspicious, both now had the hands at their service weapons being ready to use them at any moment.

Right as they wanted to open the door with some nice handy tools to open it silently, shots were fired through the door and the two Agents were able to take cover in the very last minute before one bullet was able to hit them.

_Washington DC_

Gibbs and Vance were still up at MTAC as a call on his mobile phone diverted Gibbs attention.

"This is Gibbs, what do you got for me Mc Gee."

"Boss, Metro PD found the black SUV with the stolen plates, abandonded near the Washington Airport."

"I'll be right down Mc Gee." Gibbs said then told Hetty the news, they ended the video call and at a fast pace Gibbs went downstairs back to the bullpen and said: "Mc Gee and Ziva, head to Washington Airport and find out where Marks is heading to, if he wants to leave DC."

"On it Boss." Mc Gee replied and with Ziva in tow the two finally left the building to get to the airport as fast as possible.

_Sunset Boulevard, LA_

"Go around the back Sam, so we can end this now because he probably hasn't got plenty of shots left in my opinion." Callen said and then came out from behind the car, which got hit pretty hard by the fire out of Mason's AK-47 to provide Sam some cover fire.

Mason continuously fired some rounds at Callen, not worrying very much that he might be out of bullets very soon but in the end they didn't know if Mason had maybe enough fire power left to busy them for quite a while. Victor Mason was so busy with trying to take out Callen, that he didn't notice Sam coming through the back entrance and silently walked up behind him to end this stand off right now. Right at the moment where Mason wanted to put another magazine into his weapon, Sam put his weapon at Mason's back and said: "Put the weapon down slowly."

_Washington Airport_

Very discreetly Ziva and Mc Gee had followed Marks to the Airport and both of them wondered what he had planned next. He finally got out of his stolen car, in one hand only one black bag and in the end Ziva and Mc Gee could only what was inside of it at this time.

Ziva and Mc Gee made sure that the person, whom they tailed right now, would not suspect anything because then they would probably lose their only hot lead that they had. With enough distance between them and their target, the two agents followed Marks to the Check In Point of American Airlines, Ziva and Mc Gee sat down on a bench, from where they could view the American Airlines Check In Point the best it was possible under this circumstances and waited till he finally was done at the Check In Counter.

_OPS Center_

Back at OPS Eric continued to watch every move of Nell, through that good hidden camera and he clearly was worried for her safety. Of course he was absolutely aware of the fact, that she had been through some hard training for field Ops so that she didn't get there unprepared and could take care of herself very good but he obviously wasn't stopping to worry until the lovely little red haired lady was back at OPS sitting next to him.

_NCIS Headquarters, Washington DC_

"Gibbs this is Ziva, one of the workers at the Check In Point of American Airlines confirmed it to us a couple of minutes ago: Marks is heading to LA with the next flight that is departing in five minutes."

"Thanks for Information Ziva, I'll book you and Mc Gee on the next flight from Andrews to LA because we can't afford to lose Marks." Gibbs said, quickly ended the phone call and ordered Tony to make sure that a military jet would wait at Andrews for Ziva and Mc Gee.

_AN: Thanks to- ilovencis 98 for adding this story to her/his story alert subscription, Thanks to- Blue Skywalker for adding this story to her/his story alert subscription, thanks to- Tammy Henson for adding me to her Favorite Authors list, Thanks to- becka callen for adding this story to her story alert subscription, Thanks to-Kris Shannon for adding this story to her favorite stories list and for adding it to her/his story alert subscription, Thanks to-CBurns 1995 for reviewing this story. I hope you like this chapter please read and review_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Nell and company finally arrived at an old warehouse, North lead her to a little workstation and she then asked as she had sat down: "Point Mogu has some high security measures, that can't be hacked from the outside. How are going to get rid of those?"

"You will see that very soon; now get to work because we have a tight schedule that I intend to keep track of." North just answered in very cryptic way and then Nell sat down behind her laptop, made sure that one was staring at her and then put in the USB Drive to smuggle in the little worm into system. With help of that little "friend" they would hopefully get this big operation to collapse before it got serious and even if Eric knew that she could take care of herself out in the field, she knew that it killed him pretty much right know, that he couldn't be her knight in shining armor to protect her and even if he hated to be out in the field on a mission because in the end she hadn't got the routine in this line of work like Callen and the others had.

After this whole thing would finally be over, she was really looking forward to spent some more quality time with Eric, like going to some nice little and drink something but for now she really needed to focus on the task at hand because getting herself to distracted could put her cover into great danger.

_LAX Airport_

Ziva and Mc Gee finally arrived at LA and at once they had reached the lobby of the airport building they started to tail their target again. Ziva received an E-mail from Tony that said, that the LA Office of NCIS had been informed that they were coming and two agents would wait for them at the LA Airport to pick them up.

_NCIS OSP, Boat House_

With Mason in tow Sam and Callen had arrived at the Boat House, with Callen sitting directly in front of Mason and Sam standing right next to him. "Mister Mason why did you shoot at us?" Callen asked straight ahead even if maybe already knew the kind of answer that their suspect would probably give them but he wanted to hear from Mason directly.

"Because I thought that you those Russian People that I still owe money to and even if I'm not involved in any illegal business officially I haven't been the smartest at choosing the people I work with in the past."

"Did you recently have contact with your old buddy Brad North?" Sam asked and both of the two agents curiously watched the reaction to this question and definitely his body language would betray him if he was lying. Mason didn't hesitate long with his response: "I didn't talk to him for quite a while and you can check that of course."

_NCIS Office of Special Projects_

Kensi, Deeks and their two colleagues from Washington Mossad Liasion Officer Ziva David and NCIS Special Agent Tim Mc Gee finally had arrived at OSP. Tim and even Ziva were quite impressed from the looks of the Office of their colleagues, together with Eric and Hetty they did a small brief at OPS and then Ziva finally asked: "How do we proceed with Marks?"

"Eric track the current location of Marks phone." Kensi said to Eric, who immediately worked some buttons on his tablet pc and then showed the position of Marks phone. Deeks said that this really called for a little stake out, so Kensi and Deeks decided to drive to the Adress where Marks was right now as Ziva and Mc Gee drove to Pearson Industries, a software firm that worked for the Navy and could help them with the coming cyber-attack on their country.

Meanwhile Nell was still pretending to work on hacking the defense system of Point Mogu, actually of course she was tracking every activity that got out from the computers around her and really hoped that she wouldn't blow her cover.

_AN: Thanks to- CBurns 1995 for reviewing this story, I hope all the readers like this chapter, please read and review._


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